A summer internship application at a New York start-up took a shocking turn when a Cornell University student rejected an interview opportunity with an anti-Semitic message, telling the company he had “no interest in working for a Jew.” Thank you.”This was the message sent by 19-year-old Austin Franco when he applied for a summer role at VryfID, a New York-based start-up that helps connect renters with landlords and verify identities to reduce fraud. The company is run by brothers Gabe and Aiden Einhorn, who are Jewish.According to the founders, Franco had already submitted an application and was being considered for a position on the firm’s development team. However, when the company attempted to arrange a Zoom interview through the job platform Handshake, Franco responded with an eight-word message that left both brothers stunned.“Sad world,” Gabe Einhorn, 24, wrote on X on Monday, sharing a screenshot of the exchange.Gabe later told the New York Post that he decided to make the incident public because he wanted to draw attention to anti-Semitism.Gabe said, “I felt bad exposing him because I thought he might have made a mistake and he doesn’t really believe it with all his heart.”Any doubts about Franco’s intentions disappeared. A day later, the Cornell student defended his comments in a post on X.Franco wrote, “My experiences with Jews have not been pleasant, both in person and online. That doesn’t mean I haven’t had positive experiences, but not overall.”According to the New York Post, the incident has now prompted an investigation by Cornell University, where Franco studies industrial and labor relations. His LinkedIn profile has since been deleted.A spokesperson for the university said: “Cornell condemns anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination in the strongest possible terms.”The controversy has also drawn attention to VryfID, a start-up launched in 2025 by Gabe and his younger brother Aiden Einhorn, 22, a business student at New York University.“Instead of tenants struggling to find apartments and getting rejected, we get them to sign up, pay $20 to get verified. Then we actually bring them the apartments they really qualify for,” Gabe explained.“For landlords, it helps fill their units and brings them the right tenant.”Gabe often speaks publicly about his Jewish faith and wears a kippah. He said he has faced online hostility before but never anything this obvious.“I’ve seen some horrible things across the board – anti-Semitic things and just generally horrible things,” he said, adding that he has received several death threats via social media.“People love to spread hatred on social media because they are anonymous and have no influence.”Despite those experiences, the brothers said Franco’s reaction still came as a shock.“My brother and I looked at each other like, ‘What?’ We never really experienced it (anti-Semitism) firsthand,” Gabe said.“The whole thing was very shocking and unnecessary.”